@nw2this September!!! How come it takes such a long time? Is it hard to come up with the cut-offs or something? So all you get on the 15th of December is a score, and you can only guess if you qualified or not?
@JuicyMango Actually, u only find out if u are a NMF in September of your Senior year. In pretty sure you don’t find out anything between when you get your score in December/January and September of St year.
@suzyQ7 I thought finalist was in march and semifinalist was in September?
I think “finalist” means you actually accepted a scholarship from a school, a business or the nm corporation.
This thread my have that info:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/1365011-faq-for-the-psat-sat-nmsf-nmf-process.html#latest
If not check the sticky’s on the nm scholarship board.
I believe students are told in the spring that they are “recognized” or something–that is, in the pool of kids who will become either Commended students or NMSF.
@JuicyMango … Thats right, March of senior Year is finalist. Point is, juniors who took PSAT this October won’t find out anything related to that until September, 2016 (when cutoffs leak out). Someone please correct me if I’m wrong.
Students ARE told something earlier–but they are not told much. All folks who make a certain score are informed they will either be Commended or NMSF when autumn rolls around–and they are asked to correct their files if they are not eligible. (My kid got one of those letters last year sometime in the late spring, I think–although I have completely forgotten the exact time period. He was in fact ineligible because he was only a sophomore, but was on the list because he apparently wrote down his graduation year incorrectly. Math is not his strong suit.)
But how do you know if you should take the new SAT or not? I don’t want to waste my time taking it if I didn’t even qualify for semi-finalist. Do students usually take it their senior year right around fall/winter then?
@juicymango - you will have an idea based on how many you got wrong. If you THINK you have a chance, take the SAT in June or next fall.
@juicymango @suzyQ7 You mean to tell me that the current SAT and a sufficient psat score will not grant a student national merit semifinalist standing?
Exactly. Since the current SAT is in a different format, it won’t count towards this year’s NMS competition.
@JuicyMango can you site a reference for that? I’m pretty sure I read that the class of 2017 would be allowed to use either old or new. In I spoke directly with the National Merit office about people using the SAT as an alternative to the PSAT for those that missed the PSAT for legitimate reasons and was specifically told the either the old or the PSAT could be used for that purpose.
@3scoutsmom That was loosely based on what I have heard based on the limited details CB has provided regarding this new PSAT, so I would disregard it. You seem to have a lot of evidence backing up your claim, so I guess your right. Thank you for the clarification! That is such a relief for me :).
I hope this is correct. But I won’t believe it until I see it on the National Merit Scholarship Corporation’s website! It’s still a good while away before they have to come out with a clearly stated policy on this. For now, on their site, you can see the requirements for Class of 2016:
- Take the SAT® and earn scores that confirm your 2014 PSAT/NMSQT performance. You must take (or have taken) a national administration of the SAT between October 2013 and December 2015. Also, it is your responsibility to file a request with the College Board SAT Program to have an official report of your SAT scores sent to NMSC (code 0085). See page 2 of this document for detailed information about authorized SAT administrations and score reporting.
So in the past, a confirming score could clearly come from a test taken before the PSAT. And if I had to guess, I would guess that the same will continue to be true. While there is some logic in requiring the confirming score to be new-style, the fact that students don’t know their status until much later in the game makes me think they won’t make the new-style required. After all, the kind of students who qualify are also likely to be the kind that made an effort to be done with their SAT1’s already.
@JuicyMango I do not think that statement is true. As long as your current SAT is from this year (Junior year, I believe) and u hit the threshold for qualification, it doesnt matter if its the new SAT or old.
This is what I found on ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■
When my D16 got access to the National Merit portal, they gave a date range of when the SAT could be taken for verification and if I recall it included all high school years. I can’t see them changing that this year and most likely not even for the class of 2018.
@JuicyMango I think some people get confused about CB’s role and National Merit’s role. CB doesn’t want to publicize that if you already have a good score on the old SAT you don’t need to take the new one because they make more by getting kids to take more tests. National Merit doesn’t care if CB lines their pockets with more test takers or not, they merely want to see that your PSAT wasn’t a fluke and they can do that with either the new SAT or the old one.
I strongly advise anyone that thinks they have even just a chance of making National Merit use one of your free test scores to National Merit, even if you are taking the SAT as Sophomore, they will hold you scores and if you don’t make the cut from you PSAT they will just disregard them. If you test again and get a better score they will only consider your highest score.
PSATs are dumb dont worry about them lol
@suzyQ7 @3scoutsmom Ah, I see. And what exactly would the score threshold be? Anything over 2000? And if you take the SAT multiple times, you can submit your highest score, right?
Yes, you can take the SAT multiple times and submit each each time with a free score and they will only consider your high single setting score.
@suzyQ7 Yes, I am quite sure that 13th is date for access codes and 15th is when the scores are loaded on.